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Post by bindiferret89 on Jul 13, 2009 17:52:44 GMT -5
Has anyone fed hamsters or gerbils to their ferrets? The hamsters might be hard for me because I used to breed them for pets, but I seem to be able to separate food animals from pet animals in my head (I kept rats for years and still was able to let my girls kill a live rat pup) so maybe it would work. I despise gerbils, lol.
I am slowly setting up a small mouse breeding colony and I was wondering if I could do the same with gerbils or hamsters. Any kind of hamsters that wouldn't be okay? I have access to multiple species.
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Post by Heather on Jul 13, 2009 23:18:58 GMT -5
My understanding is you can. I only raise mice because they're the easiest and I have limited space to raise them. I understand that the dwarf hamsters seemingly are easier to raise (you will have to do more research on this one) but my understanding is that they don't mind living in a communal type environment like mice. Good luck, I'm sure some of the others will pop in and give you more advice. ciao
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horseyliz
Going Natural
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 144
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Post by horseyliz on Jul 14, 2009 11:16:22 GMT -5
I've fed my ferrets dwarf hamsters before. I tried to raise and breed dwarfs to feed to the ferrets and they were nasty little critters. Dwarf hamsters are the only group of hamsters that can live to geather like mice rats and even gerbils. You may have to cage them seperately because they may not get along and could kill one another.
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Post by bindiferret89 on Jul 14, 2009 19:25:28 GMT -5
Great! Thank you! Dwarf hamsters are what I bred for awhile, so I am very familiar with their care and the practices of breeding them. They're just so darn cute though! And really nice if you get good breeding stock and handle the young from the time their eyes open...I've seen some nasty ones too though, lol.
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Post by Kerit on Jul 15, 2009 18:24:36 GMT -5
I briefly had a breeding pair of gerbils from someone who had kept them as a source of snake food. I ended up feeding the first litter as juveniles, and the ferrets' reaction was the same... pounce, chomp. The poor momma gerbil miscarried her next two litters and then passed away, so that was the end of my gerbil colony. Gerbils are so quick, though, and their jumping abilities meant I actually had to assist the ferrets a little in the hunt. And even though my boys are great hunters, I don't know that I feel safe giving them live adult gerbils.
I have a friend that has several Roborovskis. She keeps a crittertrail cage system inside of a huge aquarium, so that the males live in the crittertrails and the females outside of it in the tank. If they happen to intermingle, it seems that they maintain a "population control" themselves (and she won't let me have any accidental litters for food anyway, psh). Having had to wrangle them for photography, I think they're too quick for me! I'll be starting my own mouse colony soon too.
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Post by fuzzymom on Jul 28, 2009 11:57:19 GMT -5
I have fed gerbils before. I only got one litter before feeding everyone off. I do plan on breeding several different kinds of rodents as food for my ferrets. So far on their future menu (when I have the space to breed all of these)
Mice Rats Gerbils Hamsters African Soft Furred Rats
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Post by summer on Dec 22, 2009 13:35:42 GMT -5
I know this is a pretty old post, and my opinion on this might not really matter to anyone...But please dont feed hamsters. I have 8 of them at my house (syrians) and they are truly great pets. I know it is life and all feeding them rodents but hamsters are just amazing I wouldnt want anyone to feed them to a ferret, as much as I love my ferret i couldnt possibly to that. I had litters of hamsters that I brought to the petstore and now I am worried that they have been fed to a snake, or a ferret, or a frog, or whatever. And Im not making this up but I have heard that hamsters fur is not good for snakes and something else too but I dont remember, I was told 2 years ago, anyways Im guessing they wouldnt be good for ferrets either. I always relate my hamsters to ferrets because they are playful and affectionate just like them...Like...Why would you want to kill this? static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens5168292module55320712photo_1251935163baby_robo_dwarf_hamster_3_weeks_old.jpg Im sorry Im like the only one here saying not to but its just its kind of hard on me enough when people feed mice to their pets and now hearing about HAMSTERS?! MY LITTLE BABIES!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 22, 2009 13:47:26 GMT -5
Unfortunately, almost all whole prey fed have also been known as pets elsewhere. Which is why there are forums for raw/whole prey feeders as well. I certainly can't feed live anything, but some do. At least with mice. But I do feed frozen/thawed mice, rat, rabbits of all ages, and chicks. Haven't had the opportunity to try hamster or gerbil yet, as my whole prey provider doesn't stock them. If she did provide them, however, I would. It's really no different than feeding lamb or veal. I had both lambs and calves as pets when I was a child, but they still went to slaughter when they were old enough. I also had pet chickens and ducks!
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Post by Heather on Dec 25, 2009 0:29:43 GMT -5
I'm sorry that you're having a hard time with this, summer. Unfortunately, you have to think about what a small carnivore like your ferret would normally eat if it had to hunt for itself. European polecats (the ferret's closest relative) eats everything from insects and small crustaceans, to small lizards and newts, rodents of any kind and rabbits. They also eat small ground birds, raid nests for eggs and baby chicks and steal the young of other animals. They also scavenge and eat other dead things that they can't normally hunt. Your little ferret is a carnivore. All the small furry creatures that you see in a pet store are often sold as some creatures dinner as much as someone's pet. You physically don't have to feed your little one prey (this is the optimum, perfectly balanced diet), you can feed chicken, pork, beef, turkey....the protein list is endless. Many people on board here, have worked their way through their own misgivings about feeding live and frozen prey, myself included. I have to work very hard to get myself ready to let my guys hunt, but when I see the difference in them when they're not only allowed the whole prey but the excelleration of the hunt I figure for a half hour worth of discomfort on my part (all 14 of my guys hunt), I can allow them the pleasure that is their natural instinct. The thing is no one here is going to try and make you do this if your not comfortable doing this. You have to understand though that there are those that are, or if they're not entirely they're willing to sacrifice that bit of themselves to help keep their little ones healthy and happy. Everyone, here that feeds live tries to make sure that their little ones kill as quickly and as humanely as possible. A ferret kill is as quick as a second, no more than a breath and it's over. ciao
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Post by zoologist on Dec 29, 2009 16:42:09 GMT -5
Summer, you cant really post things like this. you have to realize that a ferret is a carnivore and you have to de-attach yourself from the situation. no one is forcing you to feed your ferret hamsters, so you shouldn't really weigh in on the topic to try to make some one feel guilty. i have rats, i love my rats. i believe my rats are so much smarter than my ferret is. they come to me when i call them, they lick me to show how much they love me, they'll follow me around and wait patiently until i give them tid bits of food, they'll actually play with me... etc. I know members of this board feed rats to their ferrets, but do i tell them to reconsider just because i love rats? nope. they are allowed to feed their animal what they think is best without being judged or asked to reconsider.
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Post by weloveourweasels on Dec 29, 2009 16:58:10 GMT -5
I have to agree with the others they said it very well. I have 2 rats as pets and as strange as the concept is to you...I also have a snake who eats...frozen thawed rats. I have no problem associating the difference between food and pets.
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Post by Lynxie on Dec 30, 2009 1:03:54 GMT -5
i dont know that i would feel safe feeding my ferret hamsters, only cause ive been bitten by them before and i know how nasty it is.
oh and i am also a rat owner, and it took me a long time to learn to seperate pets from food. i still have problems with it at times. however, i want to do what is best for my ferret, so i suck it up and deal with it.
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Post by rarnold18 on Dec 30, 2009 19:24:16 GMT -5
I'm slowly getting into live prey, starting with my dogs...today they got their first quail... at first the dogs just sniffed and chased them but when they tried to fly (they don't go very far flying) that kicked in their hunting instinct and it was over fast! The only one that didn't "get it" was Jezzebelle, only after seeing Chaos and Fagan snatch theirs from the air and eat it did she stop playing with the bird and go for it. I was curious about hamsters for live prey, we have two pet hamsters, Sophie and Ed, and they are in seperate cages, we've discussed letting them breed to feed the fuzz and the kids seem ok with it, they thought the dogs eating the quail was cool today...who knows! Next step is to see if the fuzz will eat day old or so quail chicks... does anyone have any tips or hints on feeding baby quail to fuzz?
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 30, 2009 23:09:52 GMT -5
Not a clue about live, but my fuzzes adore them frozen/thawed!
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 10, 2010 16:16:37 GMT -5
Really old post but figured I'd add my bit. I know where you are coming from with not feeding hamsters, summer. I have rats as pets (they are also breeders) and while I love my rats and find them to be truly intelligent animals, I have no problems feeding rats to my ferrets or my snakes. As you have probably heard over and over, it is the circle of life. Every animal has it's place in the food chain, no matter what their intelligence or how cute they are to us. I find rats to be very interesting animals. They are highly intelligent, affectionate, clean, and overall, great pets. But when it comes to dinner time for my ferrets, I have no problem in serving up rat for dinner.
I used to be vegan (really want to go back!) and the idea of feeding even raw meat was a horrible concept to me but I did it. Me, the vegan, standing in the kitchen chopping up raw chicken for the ferrets. At the same time I was vegan, I had snakes and at the time they were all on live (have successfully switched all but 2 to f/t) and I had to put live rats in their enclosures. I understand it is hard to think of your beloved pet being someone else's dinner. It sucks but snakes and ferrets have to eat too and they require a varied diet.
I will breed hamsters in the future for my ferrets. (and hopefully dog and cats one day)
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